Chapter 49: Bonus - : Stretching?
This is for reaching 8k stones.
Next bonus Chapter at 9.6k.
And since you guys missed the usual send off, here it is...
Get cracking.
...
"Isn’t the money rising a bit too fast though?" John looked at the payout section of the dashboard. He could swear there were like 15K before; now it had jumped to 29K.
The pre-order for the Physical copy of Fight Club had started, so that could be it; the readers were pretty eager about it even after it ended.
The delivery for that would happen in about two days, so it was already a done deal. Still, John looked at the file on the tablet where all the finished storyboards for Princess Mononoke were gathered, but making the Chapters had to wait till tomorrow.
For now, he smiled at the latest notification that just came in.
[Tony Stark has spent six hours arguing with a fictional character and won. +250 EP]
"How do you win an argument against a fictional character?" Regardless, this was his ticket to absorbing the purchases.
Cracking his neck, John entered the specialized training room and sat in the middle. He went full Chinese with the setting, the koi pond and bamboo forest and all that jargon. With the arrogant ’hmph’ of a young master, he fixed the cushion below him like this was some cultivation chamber.
After a deep breath that made him feel like he was under a tree, overlooking a vast plain of swaying grass, John selected the first item as his focus sharpened thanks to the room’s passive buff.
He clicked on the Jujutsu Sorcerer’s Physique in his inventory.
The group of white fireflies entered through his mouth and started to spread under his skin, but halfway through they turned into an army of centipedes. It didn’t hurt, but there was this uncomfortable feeling settling in the pit of his stomach. It almost made him vomit as the centipedes, after roaming through his body, started to gather behind his abs and formed a curling mass of slimy mess.
’I should’ve chosen a calming room; this is gross!’ Because of his clear focus, John was able to feel each leg on each centipede sliding along his intestines.
But that mass kept increasing, filling out his abdomen and then spilling into his arms and legs. Aside from his head, every part of his body had squirming centipedes that were trying to eat out of his skin.
This continued for an hour until his body was filled to the brim with those critters. At last, they all dissolved and left behind a mass of purple-ish energy in their wake.
’So, this is cursed energy?’ His tongue stiffened up like he had drunk sewage water, but that feeling dissipated soon after.
Along with the cursed energy came knowledge of the sorcerer’s levels. His current reserves were on the higher end, just below special grades.
’If only this shop didn’t sell the special grade body differently.’ Getting to his feet, John tried to focus on that dirty feeling again. With a determined expression, he threw a punch.
It was a normal punch.
"As expected, can’t use it just now." He decided to wait an hour, when he couldn’t even stomach water, then moved on to Boogie Woogie.
And this one was much more straightforward. It took about ten minutes of someone making his brain itchy. Well, more than itchy. It was like a tattoo artist was inking his brain raw.
Feeling squeamish the entire time, he finally let out a sigh when the imprinting ended.
"Now, time to train." John gave himself a wry smile as his body was eager to go.
But this wasn’t going to be the normal training. It was time to put himself through torture. So, he closed his eyes and arrived in the library.
Walking past the tall shelves, he started climbing the stairs to arrive at the second floor. This floor was a lot smaller than the first one, about the size of a normal living room. Aside from an eye-piercing orange couch and a TV on the wall, it had nothing else.
"Where’s the damn remote?" John dug into the couch and finally found the damned thing.
He slumped on the sofa and turned the TV on. On the bright screen were anime, movies, and TV shows all neatly separated based on their genre.
After mashing the down button, John arrived at the bottom of the list to arrive on one of the custom playlists.
DoNotTouch,FrDoNotTouch
With a wry smile, John selected the playlist and the first anime played.
Pluto
***
The next day, John entered university with red eyes. The money in his system had increased by another 40k, but that made no difference in his mood.
To the normal students, the way his jaw clenched, it looked like he was pissed off to the extreme. Paired with his physique and height, everyone started to move away when he walked past.
It was almost a one-to-one copy of Moses parting the sea. Just that John wasn’t angry.
’How did Yuji do that training? No, I just started with hell level difficulty.’ He held back his tears the whole night, trying his best to control his emotions as each series came in and stomped on his crushed heart over and over.
The worst part was that he had only watched half of the playlist by now. Still, it had allowed him to circulate cursed energy to an extent. So, the training was too effective to abandon.
’I still have to test the cursed technique, but I guess that’ll have to wait a bit more.’ Throughout the day, John kept circulating his cursed energy as a way to practice.
It took a lot of focus, but it made him more familiar with the flow and how to make this easier. And because of that, others started to steer clear of him even more. No one was around four seats away from him in every direction.
It was like they could feel that eerie energy emanating from him. Well, cursed energy was the embodiment of negative emotions. And his cursed energy seemed very potent for some reason.
’Is it because of Hanma’s urges?’ He wondered, working his Haki overtime.
However, there were still two women who didn’t stop approaching him.
First was Gwen.
"Did you spend the night reading Dostoevsky or what?" She walked over as the last morning lecture ended.
"Worse." John sighed, packing the books; he couldn’t focus on a single word spoken in class.
"Oh..." Gwen blinked, observing him.
’Is something worrying him?’ She wanted to ask but had to hold back; this wasn’t the ideal place for that.
"Tell you what, let’s have some hamburgers, my treat." There was this good place near the University she had read about on the net that should cheer John up because he loved to eat.
However, before he could answer, the second woman entered the scene.
"John, can I borrow a bit of your time today?" Nadine Roman stood before him with her genial smile.
"Did something happen, Professor Roman?" Gwen asked first, trying to control her eyes from narrowing. This professor, she wasn’t normal.
"Just some things about John’s transfer details and his recent evaluations about the scholarship. Since I am already so familiar with him, I was given the task, as other professors are very busy." The Widow smiled sweetly. "I am afraid it might take a while, so please don’t wait on him, Ms. Stacy."
"Well... ok then. I still have some lab work to do, so I’ll be there. Bye." Gwen gathered her book and left after waving at John.
"Then, shall we discuss your future, John?" Natasha said in a very playful tone.
’What does she want now?’ He recentred his scrambled mind while following the Widow.
This wasn’t the first time she had stopped him using an excuse; it had almost become a daily thing. Being subtle? Seemed like she had given up on that after their first encounter.
Natasha had started taking more lectures than regular professors at this point. Sometimes she would even take other professors’ time slots, and they allowed her to do that.
Honestly, when John followed her to the faculty room yesterday, the male professors were almost tripping over each other to get her attention.
John could understand, but they could’ve been less obvious about it. Seeing married men drool over a hot woman wasn’t on his bingo list.
However, unlike the usual skirts, she had black palazzo pants and a maroon, fitting shirt. And she somehow looked more seductive in this than the hugging skirts.
Regardless, they were heading for the gymnasium, which was eerily empty. The Gymnastics team basically slept in this place, but today not a soul was in sight.
How? Well, the widow had the coach wrapped around her little finger. That baldy was glaring daggers at him when Natasha touched his shoulder then.
"So, what’s the big plan?" John stepped on the stiff yet springy floor beneath his feet while examining the rings and other items scattered about the place.
"Your height has shot up 4 inches from what is recorded upon your transfer." She tapped on the notepad he had carried with her, poking the number with a sly grin. "I heard you said it was because of stretching, so here we are."
She gathered her hair behind her hand and used a hair tie to secure a ponytail before standing before him.
"I want you to stretch me out."
"Whoa, language." John sighed.
"You know I didn’t mean it that way... Well, depending on your performance, that is not off the table either." Kicking off her heels, the Black Widow had set her eyes on the target. "Now then, shall we start?"
...
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